The academy of multimedia: a quest for new destinations

Last spring, students in high schools across Utah's Granite School District were invited to enlist in a new academy. This new class would teach them curriculum that, though unfamiliar, was destined to change their lives--multimedia. The commercial for the class was broadcast repeatedly on the student television system. The message to students was this: you could create the perfect set of classes to complete your graduation requirements, you of course would start with the perfect basics, but what from there? You really need a different kind of approach if you want to stand out from the ordinary, just like you need a different kind of music to stand out. And what works when Mom and Dad are away from home is different from what works on stage at the Met and also different than what works on world tour. Here at Granite's Academy of Multimedia we know what you are looking for in the perfect set of classes to take next You want skills, you want excitement, you want to soar -- to be transported. You want creativity, you want it all: sound, motion, animation, and the ability to make it all work together. You want it operational, even cultural, and to say all the right things at the right time. But the Academy of Multimedia offers you more. It trains students to produce interactive educational software. And it takes all kinds to produce all kinds: individuals with different styles and points of view. In the Academy they learn to mix and match, with different solutions for different problems. Real world problems solved with real world deadlines. It can make your head spin. Learn creative production and the technical skills to go with it. Get the training that only the Academy of Multimedia offers you and become your own star or the star for others. There will be limited enrollment. Students from every Granite District High School are eligible to apply. If creating computer graphics is the love of your life, apply today. Put the Academy of Multimedia on your school schedule for the coming school year. The response that we received from this announcement was tremendous. Fifty-five students from across the district took the gamble and enrolled in this new program that promised to teach them valuable skills and capitalize on their creativity. The irony of this program's success comes from looking at the history of the program: the genesis came from an idea that originally didn't work. * Charting Our True Destination Three years ago we became aware of a request for proposals to use new multimedia authoring software to create computer-based instruction. We applied for and received a grant to create ten such programs. We created the destination ourselves--develop computerbased multimedia instruction to use throughout the district. The first idea was to involve teachers in a paid, after-hours project. After several months of effort we finally realized that the teachers were not interested in the destination we had charted. It appeared to our teachers that we were taking them to a place where computers do the teaching, and teachers would eventually be unnecessary. The problem was that our destination did not fully reflect what we valued. So, we re-evaluated our destination. What we actually wanted was students who were aware and excited about what technology could accomplish. We also wanted students who would leave our program ready to enter the job market for multimedia production without any further instruction. And, we wanted instructional programs that supported teachers and augmented the richness of the destinations they had chosen for their students. Our aim with the Academy was to provide learning experiences for students over a twoyear period. The students would begin training as high school juniors and spend two to four hours a day learning people skills, authoring skills and related technical skills. …